Assessment of WLC and fuzzy logic methods for site selection of water reservoirs in Malaysia

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to compare the weighted linear combination (WLC) and fuzzy logic (FL) models in identifying the most suitable location for a water reservoir in the area of Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia. First of all, parameters important to a water reservoir for the studied area were identified. Then maps of the study area were prepared and integrated. The main criteria selected for this study are pipe line, elevation, rive, land use, road network, water supply network, and slope. Suitable locations for the water reservoir were selected using each model. The results of this study indicated that the FL method in the early stages had better decision-making powers for locating water reservoir sites when compared to the WLC method. The appropriate places for water reservoir construction based on two models were located to the northwest and west of the study area. The two models are validated using the Kappa index. According to the results of the validation method, the map produced by the FL method exhibits satisfactory properties in the study area. Thus, it can be concluded that the results derived from two models (WLC and FL) integrated in ArcGIS can be a useful tool in GIS analysis for the determination of suitable locations for water reservoir in the study area.